Amer Group in big IPO success

Cairo, November 26, 2010

The firm received bids for 478.9 million shares compared with 82.1 million on offer, Beltone's head of investor relations Osama Rashad said.

Amer is offering the shares at 2.8 Egyptian pounds in a deal valuing the company at 5.7 billion pounds ($988 million), according to Reuters calculations.

It sold 328.6m shares in a private placement that ended on Monday, covered at a rate of 305 per cent of the shares.

The IPO is Egypt's second since 2008. Egyptian dairy and juice maker Juhayna Food Industries sold shares in an IPO in June. That offering, worth 192m pounds, was oversubscribed 6.8 times.

Amer Group sells holiday homes on Egypt's coasts and elsewhere. One of its projects is Golf Porto, in the mountainous Ain Sokhna area by the Red Sea. The group also owns hotels, restaurants, malls, a catering firm, a utilities company and other businesses.-Reuters